Sunday, September 26, 2010

Ol' McDonnald had an estancia, E-I-E-I-OOHHHH

Well, its been a while since I've graced y'alls presence so let me mention a few big events. #1 Estancia!!! Estancia is one of the spanish words for farm, so guess where we got to go to... AFARM!!! It was a perfect day, the sun was shining, there was a light breeze, and not a cloud in the sky :) To get to this estancia, we had to ride a 2 hr bus to the middle of no where, literally.
To us, it looked like the bus just decided to drop us off on the side of the road...

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Fortunately, we were very wrong. This place had 2 pools (one indoor and one outdoor), a lake to canoe in, horses to ride, a sauna, a man made forest, lots of land and cattle, cute dogs, and great food. We were able to enjoy this for only $50! The first thing we all did was hitch a ride to the horses. I didn't realize how much I missed riding with my Pa! I just knew that he was smiling in heaven when I was riding that horse. Being able to ride in Uruguay brought back many memories of him, which I found kind of ironic because I was in a completely different country, culture, you name it. It was refreshing to feel so close to him and not have sadness overwhelm me.



Next we hit the indoor pool. I brought my brand-new waterproof camera to test it out...
Needless to say, we had fun practicing with underwater photography :)

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Next we enjoyed a lovely lunch. They served us barbecued ribs right off the grill, salad, cheese rolls (like Red Lobsters), and other little snack foods. Then came desert... Let's just say that they like alcoholic deserts and that the ice cream was amazing lol. After lunch the group split
up. Some of us decided it would be fun to canoe so we found some life jackets and started heading to the lake... We had no idea how to get there and after about 20 minutes of walking in a field covered with cow patties and thorns (in sandals), we unanimously decided to head back. No one was too pleased and it became the ultimate fail...

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after that, it was round 2 with the horses! I got a horse that loved to run and be in front of the line... Let me just say that it was fun/scarry/thrilling/nerve racking all at once. What was the problem??? Well, you see the saddles were not the "normal" ones that I'm use to. They were mostly made out of sheep wool, which is more comfortable but has no butt grip (if ya know what I mean). Then, it also had no horn so if I did need to hold on to something (as in if I was slipping off) then I was outta luck. Another major factor was my horse was not afraid to race with the other horse next to me. If Leah's horse decided to speed up a bit, then my horse would speed up a bit more. Next thing you know Leah and I were clinging on for dear life. I have never been bucked off a horse, but I just knew that my record would break if I let that horse have its way. I made him slow down but there for a while, I thought I had lost control completely. once everyone caught up with us at the stable area, they were all saying "Oh my gosh, y'all looked so legit!" haha if they only knew ;)



We joined everyone else to eat a snack (that was more or less like a meal) and then gathered our stuff and hit the road. We thought we were
gonna have to walk to the bus stop but the people were kind enough to give us a lift. We all separated into 2 pickup beds and headed for the bus stop. It was kinda scary because it was probably a 10-5 minute ride with constant stopping and accelerating. Audrie almost fell out and also almost lost her bombilla (even worse)! Here is a pic of her clinging on for dear life after she almost lost it...
Once we arrived at the bus stop, it was pretty much uneventful the rest of the way home. I will say we waited for about 45 minutes for the bus to pick us up, but no one really minded cuz we were making eachother laugh by singing random songs.

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Corre, Corre, Corre!!!

So, Thursday was a hectic day all day long. I was not able to help in the kitchen because I was finishing my Spanish homework. We had to make up a scene in spanish, so this is what I came up with (the setting is two girls in a farria).

El Puesto de Joyería

Alicia: ¡Hola Juliana! Vamos buscar un puesto de joyería.

Juliana: Ta, vi un puesto debajo de nosotros.

Alicia: Ta, te segué.

Pablo (el vendedor): Hola, ¿Qué puedo hacer por ustedes?

Alicia: ¿Podemos mirar a tus collares y oros?

Juliana: También ¿Tienes una pulsera negra?

Pablo: Esto es todas de las pulseras negra y los collares y oros están allí.

Alicia: ¡Gracias!

Juliana: ¡Gracias!

Pablo: De nada.

Juliana: Ohh, me gusta un pulsera lisa, pero no tienen un pulsera lisa.

Alicia: Puedes ahorrar dinero ahora. Ayúdame buscar un collar y oro que son parecido.

Juliana: Ta, ¿Qué color?

Alicia: Hmmm. . . azul o verde.

Juliana: Hay un collar verde lindo. ¿Te gusta?

Alicia: ¡Sí! Es muy lindo. Ahora buscamos un oro parecido.

Pablo: ¿Están bien?

Alicia: Mas o menos porque me gusta un collar pero no puedo encontrar unos aros verdes.

Pablo: ¿Te gusta eso?

Alicia: ¡Sí! Cuanto cuesta si compro un collar y unos aros verdes?

Pablo: 250 por todos.

Alicia: Está bien, gracias. Los compro.

Pablo: De nada.

Next, I ate lunch and rushed to get ready for Spanish class. We have a 30 minute walk from Casa ACU to the Catholic university every time we go to class. I really enjoyed class because I understood most of what she said. We talked about the past and the present and how things have changed, which led to are next homework assignment (presenting a powerpoint completely in Spanish!!!!!!).

Then I walked back to Casa ACU with just enough time to power walk to the Alianza for my weekly English Conversation Club. This is a place for people wanting to improve their English, but most of them are fluent in English so it is more like a place for them to just talk in English for an hour. We ended up talking about education and the differences from Uruguay to the US learning systems. Interesting fact learned: Most people in Uruguay do not write out of class essays in any level of schooling. I wish ACHS and ACU had that policy!!! lol

On the way back to casa, a friend and I people watched all the way down 18 de Julio. We decided that it is more culturally acceptable in Uruguay to show public affection. Coming from a high school that punishes couples when they hold hands, it took a while to suppress a shocked look every time I see someone smooch on the street. It's common for couples to kiss during red lights or waiting for a bus or sitting down on the bus, etc. Another thing that we noticed was how different the people on streets were coming back, compared to an hour before when we were walking to the Alianza. The people were younger, there were more vendors on the streets, and restaurants had more customers. Why the change??? People had stopped coming home from work and the city night life had started! This is the time when the couples are able to spend time together after a long day of working.

We didn't power walk back from the Alianza, but we made it just in time for another English conversation group at the church next door. Other groups before us have offered to read the bible in English with different people from the community and our group agreed that we would like to continue this tradition. Tonight was the first night, so none of us knew what to expect or who would even show up. At first only a couple of church members (who know enough english words to hold a conversation) showed up, but then more people came and everyone had at least one person to talk to. My partner was this man named Alex, who knew quite a bit of English already. He was from another church in Montevideo and had been a believer since he was 11 years old. We quickly read through the passage and began to talk about our faith.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Kitchen+Yeast Rise Up Lovely Donut Days


So after a cry fest, struggling with Spanish homework and having an all-together crappy Monday, Tuesday could not have come sooner! I slept in till 10:15, put on come comfy clothes and headed for the kitchen. I love to cook here at Casa ACU. The cooks here are so positive and encouraging to be around; it was the perfect way to start a day. I am normally in charge of making the salad and dessert when I help, so today I learned how to make DONUTS. I literally know how to make lip-smackin donuts from scratch! While I helped out in the kitchen, I got to talk to Rachel, one of the cooks. She is soooo patient and kind to me! I stumbled over every sentence but she never gave up on me. Even though I know I stumbled the whole time, the cool thing is that I can tell my Spanish is improving, which was a huge joy factor today. She told me what to do in Spanish and I understood most of what she was saying without her telling me twice or repeating it in English. It was a major improvement compared to the first time I helped her. She had to write almost everything down or show me what she was talking about constatnly, which probably made her job harder rather than easier. Today however, I enjoyed lovely Spanish conversations while I worked. I even ended up even teaching her a few English words too. Who knew learning Spanish could be so fun... I guess it only happens when your in a kitchen.

Next I rushed to my room and begin to translate my very difficult Spanish homework. Part of the assignment was to write a 200 word paragraph about two people we thanked God for. This time I tried to use words I already knew instead of trying to translate it word for word. It was much easier and I did a much better job all-in-all compared to my first paragraph. Another sign of improvement in Spanish!!!! By lunch time I had more than half of the paper done, so I didn't stress about it. After a wonderful lunch ( by the way everyone loved the donuts :D), I completed the paper and ran to collect my things for Spanish class. I'm not gonna lie, I was a little nervous about class because most of the class time is spent in confusion. The walk to the Catholic university, which takes about 30 minutes, helped calm down my nerves. Class went smoothly and I actually understood the majority of what was being said.. another improvement point!!! We read two stories and had questions over one of the stories. It took me a while, but I answered all of the questions right and completely understood the whole story. Let's just say I was very excited after I left class.

I came back to my room and gave myself some needed downtime while everyone else went running or went to the gym. When they all got back, we went to a nearby grocery store and I bought some pasta to cook for dinner with some fresh veggies sometime this week. It was fun to walk with everyone and do something together. When we got back to the house, everyone stayed in the kitchen, had dinner, drank mate (I had coffee though), and talk/laugh with each other. I would definitely call today successful and completely wonderfully uplifting.

The End

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Peaks and Valleys

Ok, so this exercise is called many things (highs and lows, happies and crappies, good and bad), but the point is to talk about the best thing and the worst thing that happened this week. I thought it would be appropriate to tell you guys the best and worst experiences so far. Seeing how this is the first week of being here, it will be a little hard to narrow it down to only one good thing so I'm gonna narrow it down to one day.

First, it had been raining nonstop for 7 days. This rain varied from raining cats and dogs to almost misting. Everyone was cold and wet, which can be down right miserable, but we had high hopes for a wonderfully sunny saturday. When we all woke up saturday morning to more rain and cold wind, it was very disheartening. No one wanted to suffer walking in the cold, but it was better than staying depressed in
the cold Casa ACU. Several of us grabbed a bus and went to a part of town that no one had seen yet, while the others went to find an ATM and drop off some laundry. We walked in the misting rain for a few blocks looking for a place to eat when we stumbled upon a quaint little pizzaria. The place was so warm and inviting; we ended up sitting by a great window seat and instantly became comfortable. I ordered a hamburger, which came with grilled onions, a fried egg, cheese, tomato, mayo, and beer mustard, and fries that were overflowing off the plate. While we ate some awesome food, the weather became clearer and clearer.

By the time we were finished eating, someone noticed bus 121 and saw are group; they had just driven past us and we all laughed and then called them. They were still on the bus so they quickly got off and joined us in the little restaurant. We left and just started aimlessly walking around the big city of Montevideo. That was, hands down, the best thing I have ever done here. No one got lost, everyone saw what they secretly wanted to see and the sun was shining the whole time! Here are some pics of our adventures:


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The worst thing about this week was getting home sick... skyping can only help so much. I have decided to personally look up how Abraham and some other famous Bible characters handled living in a foreign country. I want to know why they were there, how it affected their spiritual life and how they coped with home sickness. I'll try to keep an update on my findings so feel free to join me on this Biblical journey. Hopefully this will be my medicine for my sickness.

Monday, August 30, 2010

Rise and Shine and Give God the Glory, Glory

Reasoning behind the title... I don't have one other than my mom would sing that song to me when she was trying to wake up her stubborn little girl.

WELL, I did not have my mom to wake me up for church this time. I hit the snooze button probably one too many times, yet I was still ready for church by 10:00. Before church started, I tried to awkwardly talk to other church members that I had not met yet. Each one greeted me with a kiss on the cheek (guys or girls) and a hearty buenos dias or hola. I recognized the teens that I had met the night before and sat with them and some of my classmates. I will say that we were on the back row so I was able to people watch through out the entire service. It was easy to follow along when it was time to sing because they sang songs that I knew the tunes too or when they read the scripture because it was on the overhead also. The hard part was during the sermon; it was like he was speaking a different language lol.



ok... that all for tonight. i really need to start this blog thing alot earlier because im not even caught up yet... oh well, im going as fast as i can so hang in there

Friday, August 6, 2010

long time no type...

ok, so first things first
  1. I know that it has been forever since I’ve been here.
  2. I promise I’ll do much better since I am now in a different country studying abroad with 10 other students.
  3. This not writing for months will not happen again.

Now lets keep moving forward. I have arrived in Montevideo, Uruguay!!! My group drove from Abilene to Dallas, and then we flew to Buenos Aires, Argentina and had a 4 hr layover, and finally flew into Montevideo, Uruguay!!!! just for your information that was over 24 hrs of traveling with little to no sleep.

When we arrived the whole group could not stop smiling. It was so exciting to arrive at the right destination with everyone safe and sound. Plus, no one lost their luggage or personal belongings. We loaded up everything to a van going to Casa ACU and then climbed onto a small people mover. they took us along the scenic route, going by the beach, and stopped at a little park on the way. This park had a little grassy hill and an intriguing statue with the beach as a breathtaking backdrop. You could also see the skyline of Montevideo from afar. After taking some photos, we loaded back up and drove to Casa ACU.

The first thing we did was eat the famous empanadas for lunch. Let me tell ya something, they are famous for a reason. Raquel's empanadas = wonderful and worth every carb. After the lovely lunch, the group had about 1 hr to freshen up and get ready to go on a scavenger hunt that would help us get to know the area around Casa ACU. Caitlin, and I walked around and pretty much figured out the lay of the land. Just a little side note, we also won the scavenger hunt, but who's keeping tabs lol.

Once the scavenger hunt was completed, we talked about what each group experienced and then got ready for dinner. ACU paid for this excursion, but since we had to take a taxi, I had to tell the cab driver where to go all by myself in espanol... not the easiest thing in the world, but i did tell him the right place in the end. We went to this cute (but cold and drafty) restaurant that has a small, wonderful art market place on the first floor and the second is where the actual restaurant is. I ordered sorrenos (or something like that) which is like ravioli with ham and cheese stuffing drenched in a white creamy sauce. it was fantastic! everyone enjoyed their food and came back to Casa ACU with full stomachs and leftovers. I pretty much went straight to bed, like everyone else, because it had been a full busy day.

Today we woke up and had a late breakfast. It was so nice to be able to sleep in and catch up on rest. after breakfast we had orientation and received our class schedules. The rules are''t hard to follow and are pretty much common sense, such as lock the door behind you or be considerate to others past 11:00. I found out that all of my classes are after lunch except for Friday :) that is sooo much better than having 8:00 classes every day for the past 2 semesters!!!

Once orientation was over we were taken to Lucas's, a hamburgesa resturaunte down the street. I ordered in Spanish so I'm not quite sure what I got exactly but it was still fun. Ham, beef patty, cheese, mayo, mustard, green olives, two types of salsa, this green garlicky/pesto stuff all came on my burger for a grand total of 50 pesos. That is equivalent to $2.50. So cheep, but yet so good.

After lunch we loaded onto the city buses for the first time. Oh what fun we had! Each person had to pay 17 pesos (or 85 cents) for an one way ticket to any stop on route 121. Our professor taught us the etiquette rules of riding in uruguay. Who knew that there is a right and wrong way to get off the bus or you can only stand in certain places... Lots to learn while enjoying a bus ride. It took about 5-8 minutes to reach our destination.

Our destination was the statue and burial cite of Antigus. The statue is of Antigus riding his horse and underneath the statue is where some of Antigus' bones can be found. There are 2 guards, dressed in the uniform that he wore, that constantly watch over his remains. Around the walls of the tomb are big black letters that narrate important dates in his life. All in all, the architect did nice job of portraying him in a respectful and decent way. The setup forced you to be reverent and respectful so I didn't even want to take a picture of the inside. Once we came up to ground level, our professor showed us the old gate to the Ciudad Viaje (or the Old City). The teacher went to explain that Montevideo use to be a fort to protect Uruguayans from the Portuguese, Antigenes, and native indians. The gate that we were about to enter was the end of the fort and the beginning of the town.

We walked all the way down to the docks and saw lots of interesting things. Here are some pictures that I played with on iPhoto and ended up liking the end results:
















Ok, this picture is really funny because when I saw this on the fence I was like "I might not understand what it says in spanish, but I completely understand the picture!" In fact, I thought it was so funny that I had to take a picture of it :)

Here are some pictures from the docks. This was probably my favorite part so far. Imagine 11 people that look like foreigners walking over fishing reels and ducking under fishing lines and you might get the full effect of the experience. p.s. we did this for about a mile or so; we also started walking on the wall but then jumped down onto the sidewalk by the end of the dock.

This is where they load the ships.

Here we are on the start of the wall. It was easy to get on here, but the wall gradually gets higher the father it goes into the water. This wall goes all the way to a light house looking thing, but it is sooo long that you can't even see it from this angle.

For the record, this was taken when the wall was still short. Jesus es el UNICO CAMINO translates into Jesus is the ONLY WAY. I cannot agree more with that writer.

These are some of the rocks that the fisherman sit on (on the left side of the wall). They might not look big, but don't let the picture fool you.

Here is one of the many men sitting on the wall and fishing.

Once we walked as far as the docks could take us, the group turned around and ducked/jumped over or under the fishing poles and lines. Our tour guide (aka the professor) led us to an indoor market place. Three other girls and I split from the group here and then began the long journey back to Casa ACU. This included some wrong turns here and there, but we did end up in the right place. All in all, I'm guessing it took a brisk walk of hour and thirty minutes to get back on time. Talk about your feet being tired!!!

That night, we got the tour of Iglecia de Christo (I think that's how you spell it), which was originally part of the coffee factory that Casa ACU is apart of. the church is 2 stories with a beautifully old clock tower on top. We got to sneek a peek at all of the rooms and ended up on the roof top next to the clock tower. It was fun to see Montevideo from a bird's eye view at night. The steet lights were all on so we could see enough to get around without falling. We were up there just chilling and waiting for the youth group and pizza to show up. To stay entertained and forget our hunger, we sang random songs (such as Mary Poppins and The Lion King) and danced to the drmmers practicing in the plaza closest to Casa ACU. You can barely see the plaza in this picture though, but it's still there.

Once we came back down from the roof, some of the church members were there to greet us. Diego, who is around our age, let everyone taste Yerba Mate for the first time. I do not really like it but I had to drink what was offered to me (which was a lot!) to not be rude. For future reference, if you are ever served mate and don't like it, say gracias (thank you) after you are done drinking it; that is the polite way to say I'm through and don't want no more. I did not know this at the time, but luckily I said thanks anyways and it was not passed back to me for the rest of the night.

The pizza finally arrived and we ate and mingled with the church members that came to meet us. The pizza was very good, but made a little different. Instead of using meat toppings, there was just cheese or oregano and cheese. This was probably the biggest culture shock experience for me because I realized that I had either forgotten or just didn't know spanish at all. I could not create sentences and became frustrated very quickly. Needless to say, I was very quiet that meal, but thankfully most of my group kept trying to communicate. Everyone was beat by the end of the night, including me, so we just fell asleep instantly. That was the end of Saturday the 28 of August.

Saturday, June 19, 2010

The Flight Plan

Ok, so my first big trip out of the US was definitely crazy and kinda random. You see, my dad worked at ACU and helped 24 students from MADAGASCAR attend ACU. When they graduated in the spring semester of 2008, my family was invited to attend the graduation ceramony in Madagascar. We started our long trip from Chicago and then made a connecting flight to Boston (where everyone on the trip was meeting up). Everyone then flew to Paris, France (a 6 hr flight) and then from Paris to Madagascar (a long 11 hr flight). The total travel time it took my family to get from Chicago, IL to Madagascar was about 25 hrs. It was definitely worth the trouble! Here are some pics of the flight :)







<-- This is a picture of me and my brothers getting ready for a LONG trip. We are at O'Hare checking in our bags and getting ready to go through security. . .












This was the last Starbucks we were gonna see for a while so we just had to get something... Who can pass up some Starbucks coffee? -->













<-- This is my family about to board the plane to Paris, France. My mom was so excited that she wanted to take a picture by the sign. . . unfortunately you can barely read the words.












So being the great daughter that I am. . . I took a picture close up to proove that we were going.-->

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Listen to Tori Tysons Playlist


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why oh why am I writing?

Hey,

Okay, let me explain why I am writing in this lovely blog site. . . This blog is about the different countries I have been to or will be going to in the near future. I love to travel and am going abroad next semester to Uruguay, but I'm getting a little ahead of myself.

It all began when my parents flew me to Chicago when I was 5 weeks old. I mean, the tray on the back of air plane was bigger than I was. Not to mention, the recycled air carries so many germs. . . What were my parents thinking??? Well as you can tell, I survived without getting a horrible sickness and have loved traveling since then.

Growing up, we took trips all over the states. I have been to TX, NM, AR, OH, OK, IL, MN, MO, LA, GA, FL, MA, CO, CA, KS, WI, NY, PA, IN, MI, TN, KY, VA, HI and Washington DC. Now that's not in any specific order and if you counted. . . it is only 24 states out of 50, but before I die, I want to see every last one of 'em. I have also been 7 countries (France, Madagascar, Honduras, Antigua, Brasil, Canada, and USA) including the one I call home. So that actually means I've been to 4 different continents (North America, South America, Europe, and Africa) but unlike the states, I really don't want to visit all of the continents.

Welp, that's prolly good enough for now. . . I don't want to bore you yet :)